President-elect’s telephone conversation with Tsai Ing-wen breaks diplomatic protocol, angers Beijing and puts North Korea sanctions at risk
Chinese representatives are sure to seek meetings with the Trump transition team to warn that the entire relationship would be at risk if Mr. Trump pursues closer relations with Taipei.
.. A range of global issues requiring cooperation between Beijing and Washington—from management of the global economy to climate change—stand to become more complicated if Friday’s call translates into a policy shift once Mr. Trump takes office. It could also worsen existing tensions, including recent Chinese activities in the South China Sea.
.. The phone call comes only days after China backed U.N. sanctions on North Korea, the result of a monthslong, U.S.-led diplomatic effort to get Beijing on board.
The U.S. has pressed China for years to use its clout as North Korea’s biggest investor, aid donor and trade partner to persuade Pyongyang to abandon its nuclear-weapons program.The Obama administration has conveyed its view to Mr. Trump’s team that North Korea should be the top security priority for the incoming administration, according to people familiar with the conversations.
Passage of the recent sanctions, which effectively target North Korea’s coal exports to China, had indicated Beijing’s willingness to send a message of impatience to its neighbor. Their success depends in large part on how rigorously China enforces the curbs and how well China and the U.S. continue to work together... Beijing had hoped he would follow through on indications during his presidential campaign that he would downgrade U.S. alliances in Asia... In 1996, it fired missiles into waters nearby, prompting the U.S. to send two aircraft carrier groups to the area... Mr. Xi, as is the case with Mr. Trump, is more of a populist than his predecessors and is keen to project an image as a strong leader who is unwilling to compromise, especially on national sovereignty... “One of the things Xi Jinping has made emblematic of his work style is, ‘If you do something to me, I do something to you,’”.. “So he’ll find some way to retaliate.”.. There is also concern in policy-making circles in Beijing and Washington that the phone call reflects the advice of several people advising Mr. Trump who have hawkish views on China and would like to see a closer U.S. relationship with Taiwan.
The Cost of the Cultural Revolution, Fifty Years Later
When Xi Zhongxun—the father of China’s current President, Xi Jinping—was dragged before a crowd, he was accused, among other things, of having gazed at West Berlin through binoculars during a visit to East Germany.
.. What effect did the Cultural Revolution have on China’s soul? This is still not a subject that can be openly debated, at least not easily. The Communist Party strictly constrains discussion of the period for fear that it will lead to a full-scale reëxamination of Mao’s legacy, and of the Party’s role in Chinese history.
.. In January, 2014, alumni of the Experimental Middle School of Beijing Normal University apologized to their former teachers for their part in a surge of violence in August, 1966, when Bian Zhongyun, the deputy principal, was beaten to death. But such gestures are rare, and outsiders often find it hard to understand why survivors of the Cultural Revolution are loath to revisit an experience that shaped their lives so profoundly. One explanation is that the events of that period were so convoluted that many people feel the dual burdens of being both perpetrators and victims.
.. for the first time, pursued critics of his government even when they are living outside mainland China. In recent months, Chinese security services have abducted opponents from Thailand, Myanmar, and Hong Kong.
.. In other words, in every interaction, the question that matters is which force wins and which force loses. Mao and his generation, who grew up amid scarcity, saw no room for power-sharing or for pluralism; he called for “drawing a clear distinction between us and the enemy.” “Who are our enemies? Who are our friends?” This, Mao said, was “a question of first importance for the revolution.” China today, in many respects, bears little comparison with the world that Mao inhabited, but on that question Xi Jinping is true to his roots.